The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 04, 1977
Filed:
Nov. 19, 1974
Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Linden, NJ (US);
Abstract
This invention relates to a process for demulsifying an emulsion which can be either of the water-in-oil or oil-in-water type, which comprises mixing the emulsion with a mixture of two or more comiscible volatile solvents, at least one of which is miscible with the water and at least one of which is miscible with the oil, thereby causing the separation of the emulsion into an oil and a water layer. Preferably, the water-miscible solvent is an alcohol and the oil-miscible solvent is a light hydrocarbon, more preferably, a saturated hydrocarbon or a monoolefin. Since it is generally desirable to recover the solvent for reuse in emulsion breaking, the oil-miscible solvent will have a boiling point of at least 50.degree. C. less than the boiling point of the oil. In the most preferred embodiment, a mixture of isopropanol and cyclohexane are mixed with an equal volume of a water-in-oil emulsion, said oil comprising high boiling hydrocarbons for a time sufficient to separate the emulsion into separate oil and water layers, said oil and water layers are then separated and distilled to recover the isopropanol and the cyclohexane.